DJ Adamson is an award-winning
author. Admit to
Mayhem is the first book in her
Lillian Dove Midwest Noir series. Her family roots grow deep in the Midwest,
and it is here where she sets much of her work. She juggles her time between
her own desk and teaching others writing at two Los Angeles Colleges. Learn
more about DJ at her website.
I remember Stephen
King once saying that if you were writing horror, you need to put a dog or
child into the plot because the vulnerability of someone innocent creates
horror without a need for a lot of words or description. In his novella Secret Window, the protagonist finds his
dog on his doorstep, killed. Horrible! Immediately the reader feels the
protagonist is threatened by someone evil. And the reader is waiting for the
next horrible act. Blake Synder’s book Save
the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need picks up on
another animal use. Synder states that if the character does something nice,
like saving a cat, then the character is immediately endeared to the reader. By
the way, I think the Cohen Brother’s offered a giggle to Synder’s book by
having their character in Inside Llewyn
Davis literally save a cat and carry it around most of the movie. A joke the
audience may not have gotten, but those of us who write immediately understood.
I use a cat in my
novel Admit to Mayhem to do both
what King and Synder suggest. I want the use of Bacardi to say something about
my protagonist:
Bacardi’s my cat,
named for his brown and yellow coloring and my first drinking preference of rum
and Coke. At the age of twelve, if
you add enough cola, you forget all about the sweet tang of rum. Plus,
Bacardi’s hair frizzed out from his body as if he’d stuck his claw in a light
socket. When my hair was shorter, I’d woken up many a morning with that same
look.
My protagonist Lillian
Dove is a recovered alcoholic with a 5-year sobriety; however, sobriety is not
a dominate theme in the book. This is not another novel about a protagonist
that cannot keep sober (be it alcohol or drugs). Instead, Lillian’s objective
in the novel and series is to take on life anew, with all its emotional,
behavioral, and mystery challenges. With the description and affinity to her
pet, I wanted the reader to get a feel for Lillian’s troubling past without
doing a lot of back-story.
The overall plot of the novel begins when Lillian
discovers a house fire and she becomes the only eyewitness to criminal arson. She
is in jeopardy by someone who wants to stop her from identifying them. The plot
is paced with events to create Lillian’s angst, but again, I wanted to offer my
reader the vicarious ability to feel her anxiety and fear. So, I put Bacardi in
jeopardy:
It came to me then
what was missing. “Where’s Bacardi? Bacardi’s missing.”
“Who?”
“My cat.” I got down
on my hands and knees and looked under the couch. Dust bunnies but no Bacardi.
“Bacardi, where are you?” …I got in my car and drove one block after another,
up one street and then the next, calling his name out into the night… “Bacardi?”
I followed behind them, “Here kitty, kitty, kitty.”
When I did get back
to the condo, I couldn’t stay still. I searched each and every cranny I could
think where he might possibly have crawled. Then I went back outside.
I went without the
Mustang this time. I walked and
walked and walked the night away, calling.
Several cats answered
my calls. They patted quietly up
to me purring as they rubbed against my legs. Others merely meowed back a
hello. None were Bacardi. I know
Bacardi’s yowl. It wasn’t until I came dragging back to the condo, exhausted,
with a voice hoarse and feelings of failure that I allowed myself to truly take
in the idea, “What if he never comes back? What if something bad happened to
him?”
Pike is the major
antagonist, and while Lillian may be threatened by Pike, and her mother may be
threatened, having him possibly taken Bacardi is almost more than she can
emotionally handle.
My novel is an
amateur-sleuth novel, which I classify as a soft-edged Midwest Noir. But no
matter whether a writer is developing a conventional mystery, cozy, thriller or
horror novel, the use of animals can help offer themes and provide movement of
plot.
Admit to Mayhem
With a contrary attitude and an addiction for independence, Lillian
Dove admits she has not been a success in life. In fact, she considers failing
as one of her addictions. Yet, when she comes across a suspicious house fire
with a history of arson and murder, she instinctively attempts to help someone
trapped. Lillian becomes the only possible eyewitness to criminal arson, and
her life begins to spiral out of control.
Lillian
Dove is an endearing “everywoman” struggling with life issues, emotional
complexities and a habit of doing just the opposite of what she’s told to do.
These qualities in a heroine give the reader an ability to vicariously struggle
along with the protagonist in this intriguing Midwest Noir mystery.
Buy Links
